A

PROJECT REPORT

ON

“CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND STUDY OF PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR DRIVING IN MORE CUSTOMERS WITH REGARD TO RELIANCE TRENDS”

SUBMITTED

TO

SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF TWO YEARS FULL TIME COURSE

MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

SUBMITTED BY

AKHIL GUPTA

BATCH- 2015-17

UNDER GUIDANCE OF

DR.NILESH BHUTADA

DIRECTOR

THROUGH

SHRI VIGHNESHWARA EDUCATION SOCIETY

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT & RESEARCH

WADKI, PUNE- 412308

A

PROJECT REPORT

ON

“CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND STUDY OF PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR DRIVING IN MORE CUSTOMERS WITH REGARD TO RELIANCE TRENDS”

SUBMITTED

TO

SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF TWO YEARS FULL TIME COURSE

MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)

SUBMITTED BY

AKHIL GUPTA

BATCH- 2015-17

UNDER GUIDANCE OF

DR.NILESH BHUTADA

DIRECTOR

THROUGH

SHRI VIGHNESHWARA EDUCATION SOCIETY

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT & RESEARCH

WADKI, PUNE- 412308

Date:-

TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN

This is to certify that Mr. Akhil Gupta a MBA student of “INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH”, PUNE have undergone training & completed a project on

He has carried out this project from Reliance Trends from 9th June 2016 to 14th

August 2016.

In the span of project duration his candidature was found to be very sincere & hardworking.We wish him a bright future.

(Sign)Asit RoutrayStore ManagerReliance Trends

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Apart from my own efforts, the success of any project depends largely on the encouragement and

guidelines of many others. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who have

been instrumental in the successful completion of this project.

I would thank the entire Management of Reliance trends Limited for giving me the wonderful

opportunity to work on a three-month internship project in their esteemed organization.

I am highly obliged to Dr. Nilesh Bhutada, ISMR Pune for giving me this project and guiding

me throughout my summer internship research. His encouragement, time and effort motivated

me to work sincerely in this project.

I would like to thank, Dr. Nilesh Bhutada, ISMR Pune for giving me a chance to gain an

exposure in the corporate world.

This project has been possible due to the support of several wonderful individuals. I would like

to thank many unknown individuals, with whom I interacted. All of them with their due

cooperation and motivation made the completion of this project successful. I would like to thank

them all.

Last but not the least I am highly obliged to my friends and colleagues for their help and support.

The learning during the project was immense and valuable.

Regards Date

ii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study is intended to help reliance trends decide upon the steps to be taken care for customer

satisfaction so that the growth of the company keeps on improving. Primary data have been used

for analysis. However, secondary source have yielded preliminary information.

 Research conducted was descriptive in nature. Descriptive research helped me to develop the

concept to clearly establish priorities, to divulge adequate information which helps me indecision

making and thus essential for making the study a success.

 A structured questionnaire was used to obtain required information and to assess the customer

satisfaction level and to find the ways through which the company can come up to the

expectation of customer so that the optimum satisfaction level can be achieved. I have used

random sampling for my survey. Care was taken that the respondents were as diversified as

possible. A sample size of 50 respondents was taken from Bangalore. I collected data and

analyzed them. I have critically analyzed each and every question in the questionnaire and then

given the managerial implication. This analyzed data was later converted into bar diagrams for

convenience. This also made it easy to draw a conclusion based research and provide a

presentable format for the report. Later on the information were compiled to form a presentable

report. Along with this I also learnt the store operation of Reliance Trends. A better strategy to

satisfy customer is only the way to gain customer attention and to penetrate more in own

catchment area. Strategy must be in all area like Promotional offer/Scheme, Product Pricing,

Employee behaviour, Billing Process, Product Assortment, Product quality in terms of RATER.

It is found in the research that customers are price sensitive hence Reliance trends should give

those offers which can facilitate more money saving as the customers are price sensitive. Once

the conservative thought would abolish, definitely the retail will grow with leap and bound,

ultimately it would benefit Reliance trends.

iii

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Summer Internship project entitled “CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

AND STUDY OF PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR DRIVING IN MORE

CUSTOMERS WITH REGARD TO RELIANCE TRENDS” submitted by me as a partial

fulfilment for the award of Masters of Business Administration to International School of

Management and Research, Pune is original and genuine work carried out by me.

Date: Akhil Gupta

Place:

iv

TABLE OF CONTENT

Chapter No Title Page No

1 Introduction 1

2 Industry Profile 3

3 Company Profile 11

4 Literature Review 25

5 Customer satisfaction 33

6 Promotional Activities of Reliance trends

44

7 Research Methodology 53

8 Data Analysis 58

9 Findings and recommendations 79

10 Conclusion 82

11 Bibliography 83

12 Annexure 84

v

INTRODUCTION

1

Reliance Group

The Reliance Group, founded by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is India's largest private

sector enterprise, with businesses in the energy and materials value chain. Group's annual

revenues are in excess of US$ 66 billion. The flagship company, Reliance Industries Limited, is

a Fortune Global 500 company and is the largest private sector company in India.

Backward vertical integration has been the cornerstone of the evolution and growth of Reliance.

Starting with textiles in the late seventies, Reliance pursued a strategy of backward vertical

integration - in polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics, petrochemicals, petroleum refining and oil

and gas exploration and production - to be fully integrated along the materials and energy value

chain.

The Group's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and

marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles, retail,

infotel and special economic zones.

Reliance enjoys global leadership in its businesses, being the largest polyester yarn and fibre

producer in the world and among the top five to ten producers in the world in major

petrochemical products.

Major Group Companies are Reliance Industries Limited, including its subsidiaries and Reliance

Industrial Infrastructure Limited.

2

INDUSTRY PROFILE

3

Industry Profile

Retail Industry in India

Retail industry as of June 2016

Introduction

The Indian retail industry has been thrown open to foreign majors and is packed with players

who strive to offer great products and value-for-money to Indian consumers. The country holds

vast promise for retailers with its burgeoning spending power and rising middle class.

The US$ 500 billion market, growing at an annual rate of about 20 per cent, is largely dominated

by small shops and stores as of now. The organised segment is in its nascent stage and has huge

potential to harness in the sub-continent. Foreign giants like Wal-mart and IKEA have recently

received the Government’s nod to enter the Indian market, after making all the necessary

compliances.

Market Size

India’s retail market is majorly dominated by the unorganised sector. Organised segment

accounts for 8 per cent of the total retail landscape, according to a study by Booz & Co

and RAI.

The Indian retail industry has expanded by 14.8 per cent between 2013 and 2015 and is

expected to increase to US$ 950-1000 billion by 2020, according to another report by

Deloitte. Food and Grocery is the largest category within the retail sector with 60 per cent

share followed by Apparel and Mobile segment.

4

The foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in single-brand retail trading during April

2013 to December 2016 stood at US$ 95.36 million, as per the data released by

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

10% of India's GDP is based on construction activity. Indian government has plans to

invest $1 trillion on infrastructure from 2012–2017. 40% of this $1 trillion is to be funded

by private sector. 100% FDI under automatic route is permitted in construction sector for

cities and townships.

Online Retail

Internet is the buzzword in India these days. People have online access 24x7 through their

laptops, iPads and mobile phones. As a result they have continued access to online retail markets

as well.

Online retailers are emerging as important sales channels for consumer brands in India as more

and more people, especially the young generation, are shopping online. From apparel to

accessories, kids and infants’ product lines and almost everything under-the-sun is available on

the net these days. Apparel and accessory brands, such as Puma, Nike and Wrangler, have

recorded a big increment in online sales in 2016, led largely by purchases from smaller towns

and cities with consumers paying the full price for these products.

For instance, footwear brand Nike has tie-ups only with online retailers such as Myntra and

Jabong. And in a very unique initiative, it recently launched its new range of cricket gear on

Jabong. Such partnerships turn out to be very successful as online retailers provide greater

visibility than a physical store. "Our online store can carry around 10,000 options, while an

offline store can carry only 20 per cent of a given range," said an official.

5

Online retail in India is projected to grow to US$ 76 billion by 2021, accounting for over 5 per

cent of the Indian retail industry, according to a report by advisory services firm Technopak.

This forecast is encouraging more companies- big and small- to sell aggressively online. Experts

believe that much of this growth will come from the rising purchasing power of consumers in

smaller cities, who do not have access to brick-and-mortar stores stocking high-end brands.

Retail Industry: Key Developments and Investments

Kottayam, in Thiruvananthapuram, is an emerging market for luxury cars. BMW has

launched its ‘mobile showroom’ in the city wherein people can check-out the brands’

models and go-in for a test drive as well. A weather-proof and air-conditioned structure,

the mobile showroom is a replica of BMW’s luxurious dealerships.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India's largest packaged consumer goods firm, will soon

launch the country's first liquid laundry detergent, hoping that wealthy consumers will

not be hesitant to pay a premium for a product that promises to make their laundry chore

easier. The company claims that the new product removes stains two times better than

any other detergent powder in the market. With 90 per cent penetration in the core

detergent space, HUL is trying to create newer consumption opportunities in the over Rs

15,000 crore (US$ 2.51 billion) laundry market with niche and premium products

including Comfort fabric conditioner and Rin liquid blues in the post-wash segment.

Villeroy & Boch AG, the Germany-based bath, wellness and tableware firm, has

partnered with Delhi-based Genesis Luxury Fashion to commence its operations in

single-brandretail trade in India. Villeroy & Bosch’s application, seeking 50 per cent

equity in the joint venture (JV) company for single-brand retail trade, has recently got a

nod from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The FDI infusion in the JV

would be to the tune of Rs 1.12 crore (US$ 187,463.60). Genesis Luxury Fashion, that

6

has brands such as Paul Smith, Bottega Veneta, shoe brand Jimmy Choo, Italian label

Etro and Armani and home and personal care products from Crabtree and Evelyn under

its business in India, will exclusively manage the distribution of Villeroy & Boch

tableware products in the country. The alliance ensures the establishment of a distribution

network through the opening of Villeroy & Boch’s exclusive retail stores in India.

In a bid to tap the branded footwear market in India, which is estimated to be about Rs

30,000 crore (US$ 5.02 billion), Aero Group (known for its flagship Woodland brand) is

planning to revive one of its old brands, Woods. The company is contemplating to open

around 30 new, revamped Woods stores in 2015. The eleven-year-old brand would now

lay its focus on the fashion quotient, rather than the typical outdoor, rough and tough

image of Woodland, and will have more of the range for women.

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group’s company Spencer’s Retail is on an aggressive growth

strategy, with a focus on hyper-format stores. The company intends to infuse about Rs

600 crore (US$ 100.46 million) in setting up new stores and come out with branded and

co-branded products in the food and beverage segment. One of the official spokesperson

from the company revealed that Spencer’s would set up 80 hyper stores in the next 48

months. As of now, the company has 132 stores, including 26 hyper stores, 14 super

market and 92 daily (convenient) stores.

Godrej Interio, the furniture retailing arm of Godrej Group, is aiming for Rs 5,000 crore

(US$ 837.14 million) of turnover by 2016-17, with plans to invest over Rs 300 crore

(US$ 50.23 million) to expand manufacturing capacity and retail stores. The company is

7

planning to set up more than 75 stores in 2013 itself with focus on tier II and III cities.

The Indian branded furniture market is worth about Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.67 billion)

out of which Godrej Interio accounts for 15 per cent of the share. The company also plans

to establish 200 speciality stores which will design and built products according to the

consumer's convenience and preference.

Government Initiatives

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has recently approved Swedish furniture

retailer IKEA's application to enter the Indian industry and set up a single brand retail venture in

the country. FDI would be to the tune of Rs 10, 500 crore (US$ 1.76 billion), making it the

largest investment to be made by a foreign brand in the Indian retail sector.

Moreover, the Government may further simplify investment norms in multi-brand retail to please

foreign retailers who intend to invest in India but are a little hesitant on certain clauses. Mr

Anand Sharma, the commerce and industry minister, has re-iterated that any FDI proposal in

multi-brand retail will be fast-tracked for sure.

Road Ahead

The overall Indian retail sector is expected to grow 9 per cent in 2016-20, with organised retail

growing at 24 per cent or three times the pace of traditional retail (which is expected to expand at

8 per cent), according to the report by Booz & Co and RAI.

Deloitte also seconds this forecast and expects that organised retail, which constitutes eight per

cent of the total retail market, will gain a higher share in the growing pie of the retail market in

India. Various estimates put the share of organised retail as 20 per cent by 2020.

8

Meaning of Retail

The word “RETAIL” is derived from the French word RETAILLIER, meaning to cut piece off

or to break bulk. Retailing in India is as old as India itself.

Definition: Retail is the sale of goods to end user, not do resale, but for use and consumption by

the purchaser. The retail transaction is at the end of supply chain manufacturer sell large

quantities of products to retailers, and retailers sell small quantities of those products to

consumers.

Philip Kotler defines retailing as:

All activities involved in selling goods or services to the final customer for personal use in

today’s scenario our retailer does not exist in the brick and mortar from alone. She/he can do it

by using the telephone, by direct mails, by using the Internet or absolute impersonally by using

vending machines.

Evolution of the Indian Retail Sector

Traditionally retailing in India can be traced to

The emergence of the neighbourhood ‘Kirana’ stores catering to the convenience of the

consumers.

Era of Government support for rural retailing: Indigenous franchise model of store chains

run by Khadi & Village Industries Commision.

1980’s experienced slow change as India began to open up economy.

Textiles sector with companies like Bombay Dyeing, Raymond’s, S Kumar’s and Grasim

first saw the emergence of retail chain.

9

Later Titan successfully created an organized retailing concept and established a series of

showrooms for its premium watches.

Post 1995 onward saw an emergence of shopping center.

Mainly in urbran areas, with facilities like car parking.

Emergence of hyper and super markets trying to provide customers with 3 V’s- Value,

Variety, Volume.

Major Players in Indian Retail Industry:

Shoppers’ Stop

Westside

Pantaloons

Lifestyle

Crossword

Wills Lifestyle

RPG Retail (Spencers, Music world)

Globus

Ebony Retail Holdings ltd.

International retailers:

There has been greater influence of brands like Wal-Mart, Tommy Hilfiger, Carrefour, Marks &

Spencer’s, Nike, etc in the big cities of India for long.

10

COMPANY PROFILE

11

Reliance in retail

Reliance Retail Limited (RRL) is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, which is based in

Mumbai. RRL was set up in 2006 and marks the foray of the Reliance Group into organized

retail. RRL has been conceptualized to include growth for farmers, vendor partners, small

shopkeepers and consumers. It is based on Reliance’s backward integration strategy, to build a

value chain starting from farmers to consumers.

Business Divisions

Reliance Retail Ltd. has a number of company-owned outlets along with a franchisee format that

would be in collaboration with Kirana shop owners. Its various divisions are:

a) Reliance Mart 

It is designed to be an all under one roof supermarket that again caters to household needs.

b) Reliance Fresh

It was the first amongst various format stores to be launched by Reliance Retail Ltd. The

ideology behind the initiative has been to bring “Farm to fork” thereby removing middle men

and benefitting both farmer and consumer. The stores would typically be of an area of around

3,000-5,000 sq ft. Each store is to provide fresh fruits, vegetables and also products of Reliance

Select and other related groceries.

c) Reliance Super 

It will be a smaller version of the hypermarket format. It is to offer over 10,000 products in

various categories like grocery, home care, stationery, pharmaceutical products, apparels &

12

accessories, FMCG, consumer durables & IT, automotive accessories and lifestyle products.

Reliance Super stores are to be large supermarkets with an area of 4,000 to 10,000 sq. ft. and will

not sell fruits and vegetables like Reliance Fresh.

d) Reliance Digital 

It is a consumer electronics concept mega store. It is designed to be a one stop shop for all

technology solutions in the field of consumer electronics, home appliances, information

technology and telecommunications. The stores are to cover an area of more than 15,000 sq. ft.

and offer a variety of over 4,000 products spread across 150 brands along with solution bundles

to meet diverse customer needs. The staff will counsel and guide customers not only to buy

products but also provide complete solutions to ensure consumers buy the right product at the

right price. It will continue to offer Reliance One, a common membership and loyalty program

across all formats, which follows the philosophy ’Earn Anywhere, Spend Anywhere’. It shall

also provide finance options for purchases. Reliance Digital is to be a large format store spread

across 15,000 to 35,000 sq. ft. and is scheduled to come up in 70 cities in India in the near future.

e) Reliance Wellness

It is a chain of specialty wellness stores that would offer pre-emptive, curative as well as health

and beauty solutions. The store is to add value to people’s lives, by providing products and

services that will proactively work to enrich people’s body, mind and spirit. It is to house world

class products under one roof and also educate consumers on their health needs, thus enabling

them to take charge of their health. It will sell international and national brands like H2O,

Neutrogena, Olay, Sports Nutrition, etc. They will also house alternate medicine, health books &

music. The stores are to showcase Wellness Events, Seminars, Workshops and Advisory camps

13

on contemporary wellness issues like diabetes, hypertension, fitness, diet and nutrition, weight

management and skin care.

f) Reliance Footprints 

It is a specialty footwear store that would offer over 25,000 pairs of formal, casual, ethnic, party

wear and sports wear in men, women and children footwear. The store is to be spread over 7,500

square feet and be dedicated to footwear, handbags and accessories. The design of Footprint was

conceptualized by Pavlik of USA which is one of the best design houses in the world keeping in

mind the taste and preferences of the Indian consumer. It shall offer brands from Europe and

America like Josef Siebel, Rockport, Hush Puppies, Lee Cooper Clarks, Levis, Nike, Adidas,

Piccadilly, Dr. Scholl’s and more. For kids, Crocs and Disney will be showcased. The store plans

a pan-India presence by opening over 15 more specialty stores.

g) Reliance Jewels

It is a stand-alone fine jewellery format. It is to be a one stop shopping destination for fine

jewellery. Reliance Retail ventured into gems and jewellery trade with the aim of launching 300

stores all over India within a 3 year time frame. With a growing demand for jewellery and lower

competition. The gold jewellery range shall include Kolkata Filigree, Rajkot minakari jewellery,

Kundan from Jaipur, Temple jewellery from Kerala, Jadau from Amritsar and more. In Diamond

jewellery, Reliance Jewels will offer the finest quality of diamonds and the widest range of daily

wear, party wear and wedding designs.

h) Reliance Timeout 

With over 56,000 products Reliance Timeout will offer customer an extensive range of

merchandise in books, music, stationery, toys and gifts. It is to a format based on the ideology to

provide a place where a consumer can unwind and relax, browse and buy a book, sample some

14

music, choose a gift, and buy a toy or some exclusive stationery for themselves. Reliance

Timeout will offer a comprehensive range of products in these categories along with an attempt

to create a fascinating customer experience with a warm, lively ambience.

i) Reliance Trends 

It is a specialty apparel store that will sell men, women and children’s garments. The store will

carry the best of national and international brands like John Players, Peter England, Indigo

Nation, Wrangler, Reebok, and Lee, apart from in-house brands. The store layout is to

compliment the evolving taste and preference of fashion savvy consumers, giving them an

opportunity to view /shop with ease, along with well trained customer service associates, to

compliment the entire shopping process. Reliance trends is operation with 123 stores across the

country, providing employment to so many people and planning to launch many new stores.

15

Company Profile

Company : Reliance Retail

Subsidiary Company : Reliance Trends

Founded : 2007

Headquarters : Mumbai

Chairman and Managing Director : Shri Mukesh Ambani

16

Stores at Mumbai city : Reliance Trends at Viviana Mall, Kouram Mall, Bandra,

Virar, Kandivali, Malad, Phoenix Market City Kurla,

Vashi, Kharghar.

The Apparel, Luggage and Accessories division of reliance retail has announced the launch of

their first Apparel speciality store “Reliance Trends”.

All the Reliance Trends stores located at different places across Mumbai offer some of the best

Indian and International brands with each store’s area of more than 15,000sq.ft. of shopping

area, and has been designed and furnished by the best of the international design agencies to

offer a high style and lavish experience to the Indian consumer.

The store layout compliments the evolving tastes and preference of fashion savvy consumers,

giving them an opportunity to view/shop with ease, along with an army of well trained customer

service associates to compliment the entire shopping process.

Riding on the tremendous success of Reliance Mart at various locations across India, the apparel

division of Reliance Retail is well on track to democratise fashion and make it attainable to the

masses.

This is being possible by the extraordinary design pool of Indian and International designers,

integrating the international design trends and preferences of the Indian consumers.

The company is offering solutions to common maintenance problems through its state of the art

innovative products like Ever White Shirts, Anti Stain Trousers, Wrinkle free range of garments,

aromatic clothes for infants and quick-dry sports wear that ensures optimum moisture

management.

Product quality has been ingrained into the DNA of Reliance Trends and is integral to the

mission of “Grahak Devo Bhava”. The quality system are designed, implemented and monitored

as per international standards by a highly competent team of professionals.

17

To deliver the customer the best value for their money, only those products that demonstrate an

exemplary safety and quality meeting both implicit and explicit needs of the consumer are

approved for purchase.

Some of the quality standards that are being followed are American Association of textiles,

chemists and colourists. American Standard, ISO and BIS methods.

For the first time in organised retail, Reliance Trends is introducing Made to Measure tailoring

service offering customised fits to all the customers buying fabric from the store at prices

compatible to neighbourhood tailors.

Reliance Trends is offering a homogenous mix of private label of brands across men’s, women’s

and children’s category to fulfil every customer’s requirements.

The Network range of garments comprises of formal office wear and collection for men and

women, while the Netplay range, showcases a smart casual collection for the evolving

workplace. The DNMX range has been developed with a clear focus on the youth of India,

offering them exclusively crafted fashion garments like Denims, T-shirts etc.

Sparsh range of Indian wear for women, offers the finest collection of salwar kurtas, churidars

and a fast evolving Mix and Match range of garments. An exclusive label Panda has been

developed for infants and toddlers, while the FRENDZ range of garments would compliment the

wardrobes of the growing generation of boys and girls.

Apart from these private labels, the store is also offering some of the most renowned brands in

the country like Levis Strauss Signature, Peter England, Indigo Nation, American Tourister, John

18

Players etc. Some designer labels either directly or through their sub brands most of these

exclusively for Reliance Trends.

Continuing the tradition of reaching out to the middle class of the country, the current offering

from Reliance Trends is easily affordable to the Indian consumer. The specific private label

called First Class, is designed to cater to the range of garments cutting across men’s, women’s

and children’s wear to deliver extreme value to the Indian consumers.

Taking forward the voice of Shri Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance

Industries Ltd, Reliance Trends delivers unmatched affordability, quality and chain of products

and services to the consumer. Reliance Retail continues to fine tune its offering and listening to

its customers and learning from them. This as the Chairman envisions, will be the beginning of

transformation of Indian Retail with benefits for the consumer.

Product Profile

1)Women’s Wear

Indian wear Formal wear

Semi Formal wear Casual wear

Dress material Lingerie

2)Men’s wear

Formal wear Semi Formal wear

Casual wear Sports wear

19

Men’s wear fabric Under garments

3) Kid’s wear

Infants Toddlers

Girls 2-8 years Girls 8-14 years

Boys 2-8 years Boys 8-14 years

4) Accessories

Handbags Socks

Handkerchiefs Sports Goods

Private labels by Reliance Trends

20

External Brand in Reliance Trends

21

22

Group vision

Democratize fashion, enrich quality of life of Indian households by giving them access to quality

, fashionable clothing at extreme value.

Group mission

To be the India’s largest apparel retailer and the dominant player in retail space.

USP

Q: Best Quality

F: Latest Fashion

T: Patented Technology

V: Value for Money

23

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH:

Lower Price

Coupons, Voucher

Promotional Products

Good Quality

Value to money

Understanding the customer needs

Implementation of the pint theory (5 theory = greeting)

Offer on national holiday like 15 august , 26 jan ,16 junetc

Ultimate offer (offer for the whole yr)

WEAKNESS:

Repeated Collections

Not Much Collections

Lack Of Awareness

OPPORTUNITIES:

New Products : Expanding Beyond Clothing To Include More Shoes, Handbags

Catalogs

Removing The Products Which Are Not Selling Much

THREATS:

There Is A Competition From Stores Like Life Style, Pantaloons, Shopper’s Shop

Etc.,

Many Stores Have To Open

24

Reliance Retail accomplishes Rs 17,460 crores turnover in 2015-2016

The company witnessed strong same store sales growth ranging from 18% to 27% across format

sectors over last year.Reliance Retail, which operates about 3,383 stores across multiple formats in 679 cities, reported a 42%

jump in its revenues from operations at Rs 43,968 crores for the year ended March 2016. In the last

financial year, Reliance Retail achieved cash breakeven with earnings before depreciation, finance cost

and tax expense (PBDIT) of Rs 78 crore. Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and

MD, Reliance Industries Limited said, "We are delighted to see our retail business achieving a milestone

of annual revenue crossing Rs 80,000 crore and will further strengthen our position in this sector."

The brand also maintained the status of being the largest grocery retail chain in India and also intends to

continue expansion in all retail formats. 

Despite challenging macroeconomic conditions, it witnessed strong same store sales growth ranging from

18% to 27% across format sectors over last year. 

During the financial year 2015- 2016, Reliance business opened 280 new stores thereby furthering their

leadership positions in respective format sectors.

In order to meet the requirements of consumers in a connected world, ‘Reliance Digital Express’ format

was launched and this format provided cutting edge technology solutions to the customers and helps them

connect with their world from anywhere at any time. It also announced the partnership with REISS,

Superdry, Dune, Brooks Brothers and Stuart Weitzman. 

The Joint Venture between Reliance Brands and Iconix which owns Ed Hardy and London Fog brands for

India signed a long term license relationship with Arvind Lifestyle Brands and Kapsons respectively.

At the end of March 2013, the company operated over 1,450 stores in 129 cities across India. The

membership of “Reliance One” loyalty program was patronized by over 13 million members.

25

LITERATURE REVIEW

26

Marketing

Different people have defined marketing in different ways. The practice of management, Peter

Drucker wrote that “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business

enterprise has two and only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and

innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function

of the business.”

In the words of Philip Kotler, “Marketing is a Human activity directed at satisfying needs and

wants through exchange processes.”

Survey Methodology:

In statistics, survey methodology is the field that studies the sampling of individuals from

a population with a view towards making statistical inferences about the population using the

sample. Polls about public opinion, such as political beliefs, are reported in the news media in

democracies. Other types of survey are used for scientific purposes. Surveys provide important

information for all kinds of research fields, e.g., marketing research, psychology, health

professionals and sociology. A survey may focus on different topics such as preferences (e.g., for

a presidential candidate), behaviour (smoking and drinking behaviour), or factual information

(e.g., income), depending on its purpose. Since survey research is always based on a sample of

the population, the success of the research is dependent on the representativeness of the

population of concern (see also sampling (statistics) and survey sampling).

Survey methodology seeks to identify principles about the design, collection, processing, and

analysis of surveys in connection to the cost and quality of survey estimates. It focuses on

improving quality within cost constraints, or alternatively, reducing costs for a fixed level of

quality. Survey methodology is both a scientific field and a profession. Part of the task of a

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survey methodologist is making a large set of decisions about thousands of individual features of

a survey in order to improve it.

The most important methodological challenges of a survey methodologist include making

decisions on how to: [2]

Identify and select potential sample members.

Contact sampled individuals and collect data from those who are hard to reach (or reluctant

to respond).

Evaluate and test questions.

Select the mode for posing questions and collecting responses.

Train and supervise interviewers (if they are involved).

Check data files for accuracy and internal consistency.

Adjust survey estimates to correct for identified errors.

Selecting Examples:

Survey samples can be broadly divided into two types:

 probability samples and non-probability samples. Stratified sampling is a method of probability

sampling such that sub-populations within an overall population are identified and included in

the sample selected in a balanced way.

Methods of data collection

There are several ways of administering a survey. The choice between administration modes is

influenced by several factors, including 1) costs, 2) coverage of the target population, 3)

flexibility of asking questions, 4) respondents' willingness to participate and 5) response

accuracy. Different methods create mode effects that change how respondents answer, and

different methods have different advantages.

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The most common modes of administration can be summarized as:

Telephone

Mail (post)

Online surveys

Personal in-home surveys

Personal mall or street intercept survey

Hybrids of the above.

Response formats

Usually, a survey consists of a number of questions that the respondent has to answer in a set

format. A distinction is made between open-ended and closed-ended questions. An open-ended

question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed-ended question has

the respondent pick an answer from a given number of options. The response options for a

closed-ended question should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Four types of response

scales for closed-ended questions are distinguished:

Dichotomous, where the respondent has two options

Nominal-polytomous, where the respondent has more than two unordered options

Ordinal-polytomous, where the respondent has more than two ordered options

(bounded)Continuous, where the respondent is presented with a continuous scale

A respondent's answer to an open-ended question can be coded into a response scale

afterwards, or analysed using more qualitative methods.

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Interviewer effects:

Survey methodologists have devoted much effort to determine the extent to which interviewee

responses are affected by physical characteristics of the interviewer. Main interviewer traits that

have been demonstrated to influence survey responses are race, gender  and relative body weight

(BMI) . These interviewer effects are particularly operant when questions are related to the

interviewer trait. Hence, race of interviewer has been shown to affect responses to measures

regarding racial attitudes , interviewer sex responses to questions involving gender issues , and

interviewer BMI answers to eating and dieting-related questions . While interviewer effects have

been investigated mainly for face-to-face surveys, they have also been shown to exist for

interview modes with no visual contact, such as telephone surveys and in video-enhanced web

surveys. The explanation typically provided for interviewer effects is that of social desirability.

Survey participants may attempt to project a positive self-image in an effort to conform to the

norms they attribute to the interviewer asking questions.

Primary research:

Primary research consists of the collection of original primary data. It is often undertaken after

the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by reviewing secondary research or by

analyzing previously collected primary data. It can be accomplished through various methods,

including questionnaires and telephone interviews in market research, or experiments and

direct observations in the physical sciences, amongst others.

The term primary research is widely used in academic research, market research and competitive

intelligence.

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Secondary research:

Secondary research involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather

than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or

experiments.

In a market research context, secondary research is taken to include the re-use by a second party

of any data collected by a first party or parties.

In archaeology and landscape history, desk research is contrasted with fieldwork.

Sometimes secondary research is required in the preliminary stages of research to determine

what is known already and what new data is required, or to inform research design. At other

times, it may be the only research technique used.

A key performance area in secondary research is the full citation of original sources, usually in

the form of a complete listing or annotated listing.

Secondary sources could include previous research reports, newspaper, magazine and journal

content, and government and NGO statistics.

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for

the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed

for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. The questionnaire was

invented by Sir Francis Galton.

Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not

require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have

standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. However, such standardized answers

may frustrate users. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be

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able to read the questions and respond to them. Thus, for some demographic groups conducting a

survey by questionnaire may not be practical.

As a type of survey, questionnaires also have many of the same problems relating to question

construction and wording that exist in other types of opinion polls.

Types:

A distinction can be made between questionnaires with questions that measure separate

variables, and questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index.[1] Questionnaires within the former category are commonly part of surveys, whereas

questionnaires in the latter category are commonly part of tests.

Questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables, could for instance include

questions on:

preferences (e.g. political party)

behaviors (e.g. food consumption)

facts (e.g. gender)

Questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index, include for

instance questions that measure:

latent traits (e.g. personality traits such as extroversion)

attitudes (e.g. towards immigration)

an index (e.g. Social Economic Status)

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Question sequence

In general, questions should flow logically from one to the next. To achieve the best response

rates, questions should flow from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual and

behavioral to the attitudinal, and from the more general to the more specific.

Basic rules for questionnaire item construction

Use statements which are interpreted in the same way by members of different

subpopulations of the population of interest.

Use statements where persons that have different opinions or traits will give different

answers.

Think of having an "open" answer category after a list of possible answers.

Use only one aspect of the construct you are interested in per item.

Use positive statements and avoid negatives or double negatives.

Do not make assumptions about the respondent.

Use clear and comprehensible wording, easily understandable for all educational levels

Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Avoid items that contain more than one question per item

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Customer service is the provision of services to customers before, during and after a

purchase. According to Turban “Customer service is a series of activities designed to

enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service

has met the customer expectation."

Its importance varies by product, industry and customer; defective or broken merchandise can

be exchanged, often only with a receipt and within a specified time frame. Reliance Trends

will often have a desk or counter devoted to dealing with returns, exchanges and

complaints, or will perform related functions at the point of sale; the perceived success of

such interactions being dependent on employees "who can adjust themselves to the

personality of the guest,"

Customer service plays an important role in an organization's ability to generate income

and revenue. From that perspective, customer service should be included as part of an

overall approach to systematic improvement. A customer service experience can change

the entire perception a customer has of the organization.

Customer support is a range of customer services to assist customers in making cost

effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation,

training, trouble shooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product.

A multi-task position drawing on extensive CUSTOMER SERVICE experience to advance

a proven track record for developing and maintaining key accounts and improving

departmental efficiencies.

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Objectives of Customer Services

Provide customers and staff with clear standards and expectations.

Ensure all the customers contact reaches appropriate conclusions.

Minimize incidences of repeat contact

Seek to provide a seamless service for customers

Provide equal and easy access to our services at a time, place and channel that meet the

needs of residents, businesses and other stakeholders

Cater for customers needs irrespective of age, gender, physical or financial ability,

ethnic origin, race, religion or geographical location

Provide a prompt, courteous and knowledgeable response to all customer enquiries.

Equip our staff to provide customers with an excellent standard of service

Enable our customers to provide feedback easily, through complaints, customer

surveys, etc

Use customer compliments, comments and complaints to drive improvements to service

Improve the speed, quality and consistency of response to enquiries by having our

information in a format that can be easily accessed

Customer Segmentation of Reliance trends Reliance trends target higher & upper middle class customers.

The large and growing young working population is a preferred customer segment.

Reliance trends specially targets working women & home markets who are the

primary decision maker.

Reliance also targets on the young population of the country as they will follow fashion

mostly and of reliance promotes itself as the India’s larget fashion destination.

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and

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slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some

of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.

Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away

happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who

may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become

repeat customers.

The field of my research is Customer Satisfaction which focuses on customer‘s perceptions.

Many firms are interested in understanding what their customers thought about their shopping or

purchase experience, because finding new customers is generally more costly and difficult than

servicing existing or repeat customers.

Such researches provide a wider scope to the firms in the terms of high customer satisfaction.

Definition:

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Customer Satisfaction, business term of how the products and the services supplied by the

company meet or surpass the customer expectation. It is the key performance indicator within the

business. Customer satisfaction can greatly achieved by imparting Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) in the company.

BUSINESS TECNIQUES OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

One of the key customer satisfaction techniques is the need to provide front line

employees with the ability to respond to customer situations quickly without theneed to

‗ask for permission‘.

Innovation drives customers' satisfaction. As customers' needs keep changing, an

innovation-driven company is capacitated to exceed customers' expectations.

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To provide after sale services.

Listen actively and carefully.

Anticipate that the customer will be asking questions. They may be easy, they may be

hard. But encourage them anyway. If you cannot provide an answer, promise to find out

the answer from someone who can.

Be patient, look from the customer's point of view and work from there. This point of

view will always give you the best outlook on the situation.

Always keep a smile on your face when dealing with customers which can lead to

customer satisfaction. This positive attitude can rub off and turn a potentially negative

situation into a positive experience

RECENT METHODS THAT TODAYS FIRM ADOPT TO INCREASE THE

CUSTOMER SATIFACTION

In order to stay competitive and remain profitable, businesses have to focus on thequality of their

customer service. Companies that invest time, energy and money intodeveloping and nurturing

quality so customers can have a satisfactory experience aregoing to be more profitable and better

likely to experience more sustained growthover the long-term.

Customer-Centric Attitude

Operations should be customer-centric meaning that the customer's best interests should always

be foremost. Service should be offered in a helpful way and with asmile. Both management and

employees should show interest towards the customer and strive to give them a good experience.

Today's companies must strive even harder than abiding by this golden rule of customer service.

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Customer care

Is something which is done even after the product is purchased. Many companies are interested

in knowing the reason why consumers have purchased the goods and services or even the goods

are not purchased. Managers interested in customer care try to collect a database as to why the

customers have purchased the competitors product and service and what will be the level of

satisfaction if it is introduced in our product or service. And also to find the level of expectations

and their level of dissatisfaction.

Customer focus

Is attained when everyone in the organization make efforts to focus the activities towards the

satisfaction of the customers right from the stage of new product planning and to product

modification to the stage of elimination of the goods and services everything revolves around the

customers. All the activities are focused on the customer satisfaction.

Customer Service Training

Another strategy to improve customer satisfaction is to invest in customer service training. All

employees should be on board with how to treat customers and help them gain a valued

experience. The quality of customer service can easily make or break a business.

The experience the people have received is the most important aspect in selling pure services or

services with tangible goods. Once the customers is satisfied with the service his loyalty towards

that product or company is at its peak.

Companies today are doing a lot of self- introspection that they are really giving the said services

to the customers.

Companies are spending more money and time to see that the services are evaluated and

improved as per the expectations of the customers. In fact , the companies globally known for

their services are always in the process of finding opportunities to improve on the quality of the

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services. Better results can be seen when the organizations makes use of external, internal, and

interactive marketing.

Communication

Communication with customers is also important. It's a good idea to always provide customers

with ways they can contact you and offer ways to contact them (if they choose). Offering e-mail,

telephone line, web contact or other ways for customers to offer comments and/or complaints is

of value.

Customer Relationship Management Software

Customer Relationship Management is a process of managing detail information about

individual customer and carefully managing all the customers touch points with the aim of

maximizing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Customer Relationship Management Software. Customer relationship management (CRM)

software has become a strategy many companies employ to help increase customer satisfaction.

Through using CRM tools and accompanying philosophy, businesses can examine and analyze

what customers want and strive to meet this demand before they even walk in the door.

BENEFITS

CRM aims at individual customers. It tries to develop customers relationship by looking

into his needs and requirements.

CRM helps in two way communication by understanding the messages of the customers

and responding to it. There by gaining customer loyalty.

CRM helps to customize the products and thereby reducing the rate of customer

defection.

CRM tells the company what product or service the customer needs today and what it

will need in future.

Ask for Feedback

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Being interested in customer feedback is always a valuable practice to engage in to increase

customer satisfaction. What better strategy and technique to find out how to satisfy your

customers than to ask them?

Surveys, questionnaires, talking to customers as they shop, and then following up with calls or e-

mails are all good ways to get feedback.

Quality Control

Quality is important to customer satisfaction and the level of quality directly plays into a

business' ability to meet customer expectations. Quality should be monitored for both service and

the type of products offered; as a part of this guarantees and the willingness to stand behind

service and/or products is necessary.

Creating Customer Delight

Customer delight is when the standard of the goods and services are much higher than the

expectations of the customers , this not only satisfies them but ssurprise and delight them. To

create customer delight the company will not only in crease the standard of service but will train

its personnel to deliver in its best possible manner the services as expected by the customers.

Customer delight depends on the reliability factor oif the company. This is the ability to perform

what has been promised to the customer. Companies who focus on customer delights should be

dependable and have accuracy in delivering the services to the customers.

Companies with much attitude of empathy and always paying individual attention to its

customers which in turn builds customer delight. The advantage is manifold because it creates

brand loyals and customer loyalty.

Significance of Customer Satisfaction Research

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is

seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.

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Customer satisfaction not only to create loyalty among the customers but it increases the

goodwill of the company by uplifting the market value of the brand.

Customer researches are conducted to answer the basic questions like

who our customers are?

What do theylike to buy?,

when do buy and how do they buy?, it examines the taste, preferences and the attitude of the

customers. Mostly it tends to become qualitative motivational research of customer behavior.

Here, the self concept, ego, personality and life style of the consumers are studied. There is an

attempt to study beliefs, opinions of the customers.

By conducting such researches the company can minimize its defects in the field of production

and can deliver high quality of services in relation to its competitors. Such researches can be

carried by conducting surveys through interviews and questionnaire methods. These

questionnaire methods form a path of getting the customers positive and negative feedback. The

company can then respond to feedback and can retain the existing customers as well preventing

them from shifting to other brands.

A customer complaint could be the insight you have been seeking to learn why a certain product

isn't moving. It can also be an indicator of personnel problems. If a customer mentions that an

item does not work properly, you can research and try to recreate the problem, potentially

finding a fix that will increase sales. A customer's complaint about an employee's lack of

knowledge may reveal a need for more extensive training, while a grievance about poor

customer service provides the chance to address it with your staff.

By doing so it creates confidence among the customers , leading to word-to-mouth publicity

which is more effective rather than t.v. commercials.

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Why measure the Customer Satisfaction?

Customer satisfaction is tied directly to profitability. Well-established research by Bain &

Company found that, for many companies, an increase of 5% in customer retention can increase

profits by 25% to 95%. The same study found that it costs six to seven times more to gain a new

customer than to keep an existing one.

It is important to consistently measure and monitor that input. Without an effective customer

satisfaction research program in place, the company will be losing business, missing

opportunities, and putting itself at a competitive disadvantage. In order to measure the customer

satisfaction a Customer Satisfaction Survey has to be carried out. A closer look at how to

formulate survey questions.

1. When to Conduct Customer Satisfaction Research?

The answer depends on the size of the customer base and the purpose of the research.

There are two key types of surveys, and they serve very different purposes:

*Transactional surveys. solicit* feedback directly from the product or service user about that

particular encounter. They are conducted immediately after each customer transaction.

* Relationship surveys. collect input from people who have an ongoing relationship with the

company and have had multiple transactions. The respondents typically are responsible for

deciding whether to continue the working relationship. In many cases conducting both

transactional and relationship surveys may be appropriate.

2. How to distribute the survey?

The best means of distributing a survey depends on whether it is a transactional or relationship

survey. A transactional survey is conducted at the point of customer contact. Relationship

surveys, on the other hand, are most cost-effectively conducted online. Online data collection

offers significant advantages over other modes of interviewing customers, and you should use it

whenever possible. The advantages include:

*Speed. The Internet offers instantaneous distribution of survey and real-time accumulation and

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tabulation of results. This allows for immediate data analysis, even while the survey is still in

progress. The faster responses arrive, the faster they can be addressed. In contrast, mail surveys

suffer from long lag times and low response rates.

*Candor. This is essential for research on sensitive subject matter where studies indicate people

are more likely to answer questions honestly on the Web than they are on the phone or in

personal interviews, Such responses provide insight into what a company is doing well and

frequently provide warning signs about the health of the business relationship.

*Cost. The Internet eliminates postage and telephone costs as well as basic materials like paper,

staples, envelopes, and printing. Because it is self-directed, there is no interviewer cost. Finally,

it‘s more convenient.

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Promotional activities done by Reliance trends for driving more customers

into the store:

Reliance trends is doing different types of promotional activities with a main aim of bringing in

more customers into the stores.

Reliance is focusing on attracting customers through different types of walkin driven activities,

some of the activities done by Reliance trends in the past 2 years are as below.

Media plan

Leaflets distribution & balloon distribution

Guess the price challenge

Event plans

Trend stylish

Seasonal offers

Sponsoring college fests and corporate launches.

Fashion shows in malls

1. Media plan:

Media plan involves communication through different media such as

Print media

Social media

Radio

Cinema

Outdoor communication

Print media:

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Reliance trends is using the print media as one of its promotional activities, Reliance spends lot

of money in printing its advertisements in the most major news dailies. The advertisements will

be printed mostly on the weekends (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays) in such a way that the

advertisements will grab the reader’s attention and making them to come into the stores, which

will not only increase the footfall of the store but also increase the revenue by attracting the

people to make a purchase.

Social media:

With the ever increasing usage of internet in the country, most of the population using the social

networking sites such as Face book, twitter.

Reliance is having its own brand pages and groups in the face book, with the help of which

Reliance is doing some campaigns in the social networking sites for promoting its brands, new

offers and creating brand awareness to the people.

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Radio:

Reliance trends is having its own radio channel called Radio trends which will announce the

offers in the stores all the time, making the customers who enter the store to know about all the

offers.

Other than its own radio channel Reliance trends is using some other radio channels for its

promotions. In the radio channels like Radio mirchi, Big fm, radio city, radio one, indigo etc..

Reliance is announcing its advertisements in a very high frequency in the major cities where

there are Reliance trends stores with a main aim of bringing more customers into the stores.

Cinema:

Reliance trends is using cinema plan as one of its promotional activities, they are selecting the

best multiplexes and single screen theatres in the catchment areas where the multiplexes and the

single screen theatres are popular and more people will be visiting these multiplexes.

Cinema plan is being used in the most major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai,

Bangalore and these ads will be given mostly on the weekends (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays).

Reliance will never give its ads in televisions, viewers may change the channels at the time of

advertisements so we cannot measure the usefulness of the television ads. But the viewers have

to watch the advertisements in the cinemas and the multiplexs as the ads will be given before the

start of the films and in the breaks.

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Outdoor communication:

Reliance trends is using banners and hoardings as the outdoor communication. Reliance is

placing the attractive banners and hoardings with its offers in the best catchment locations where

the flow of population was very high.

Reliance trends also uses cluster hoardings in the key traffic junctions in the main cities in the

way it will dominate the location and catch the attention of the people who are passing by the

way.

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2. Leaflets and balloons distribution:

Reliance use to hire some guys for distributing the leaflets and balloons in the selected catchment

areas. They will do this mostly on weekends and at the time of special offers. This leaflets

distribution is basically for increasing the footfall to the store and thereby converting the people

who enter the store into the final customers. I have observed that many people who have taken

the leaflets have entered into the stores.

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3. Guess the price challenge:

Reliance trends will hire two or three volunteers for engaging the crowd in the places where this

activity is being conducted.

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The volunteers will find the well dressed and good looking people, give them a chance to guess

the price of the merchandise. If they guess the price correctly they will be given with some

discount coupon.

Almost everyone who get the discount coupon will enter into the stores and try some apparels in

the stores.

It will drive more walkins into the store and makes them to do a purchase as well.

4. Events paln:

Reliance use to hire some events organizing companies and they will do different types of events

for attracting the customers to come into the stores.

Scratch and win

Puzzle game

Get clicked with your loved ones.

Puzzle game

A board with Reliance trends logo will be placed on a stand at the store &

some portions of the reliance trends logo will be removed, customers have to find the

missing portions of the logo.

The same portion which have been removed from the logo will be distributed in the store

catchments in large numbers by promoters asking customers to participate for Puzzle

game at Reliance trends outlet to win surprise gifts.

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Scratch and win

Promoters will be holding bunch of balloons at the catchments & asking customers to

pick any one of those bunch of balloons and break it.

After breaking the balloons customers will get a scratch card which make them to get

assured discount of 10% to 20%.

Customers will visit the store, and shop for some amount to redeem the free discounts.

This will make more customers come into the store as they were getting free discounts.

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Get clicked with your loved ones

Promoters will go to catchments ask the customers to get clicked with loved one & get a

instant photo along with coupons.

A stage will be kept in the store to click the customers.

Promoters & printing machines will be kept to give instant photograph to customers.

This will attract more customers to enter into the stores as they were getting the

photograph for free of cost.

Customers will also be given with a additional discount voucher which will allow

customers to try some apparels inside the store.

5. Trend stylish:

Reliance will hire 2 or 3 volunteers for engaging the crowd in the malls and the

catchment locations.

The volunteers will find out the well dressed, good walking, good looking person and

stylish person and immediately will give that person discount voucher and announce

them as the Trends Stylish by announcing them as Trends Stylish.

All the people who got the discount voucher will come back to the stores to redeem the

coupons.

6. Seasonal offers:

Reliance will also do more promotions for the seasonal festivals like children day, Fathers day,

Valantines day, Mothers day, Independence Day etc with different types of discounts and offers

related to that specific day of festival for bringing in more customers into the stores.

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7. Sponsoring college fests and corporate launches

Reliance trends also concentrating on sponsoring the college fests and the corporate launches.

Reliance believe that the sponsoring to college fests and the corporate launches will bring more

customers into the stores, increases the footfall.

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RESEARCHMETHODOLOGY

Title of the project:

56

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND STUDY OF PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR

DRIVING IN MORE CUSTOMERS WITH REGARD TO RELIANCE TRENDS

Objectives:

1. To study the satisfaction level of customers with regard of reliance trends.

2. To find out the buying behavior of the customers coming in to Reliance trends.

3. To identify main competitors of Reliance trends with regard to services.

4. To study different types of promotional activities done by Reliance trends for

driving more customers

Methodology adopted for study Observing the working of various departments like finance, Human resource, Marketing,

purchasing and production.

Discussion with executives, managers and employees.

Visiting and surfing websites of the company

Meaning

Research Methodology is a set of various methods to be followed to find out

various information’s regarding market strata of different products. Research

Methodology is required in every industry for acquiring knowledge of their

products.

Area of study

The study is exclusively done in the area of marketing. It is a process requiring care,

sophistication, experience, business judgment, and imagination for which there can be

no mechanical substitutes.

Sources of Data

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Prima ry Source - The primary data was collected by means of a survey. Q uestionnaires

were prepared and customers of the Reliance trends at two branches were approached to fill

up the questionnaires. The questionnaire contains 15 questions which reflect on the type

and quality of services provided by the Reliance trends to the customers. The response o f

the customer is recorded on a grade scale of strongly disagree, disagree, uncertain, agree and

strongly agree for some questions. The filled up information was later analyzed to obtain the

required interpretation and the findings.

Seconda ry Source - In order to have a proper understanding of the customer service of

Reliance trneds a depth study was done from the various sources such as books, a lot of data

is also collected from the official websites of the Reliance trends and the articles from

various search engines like Google, yahoo search and answers.com.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The research design is exploratory till identification of customer services parameters. Later it

becomes descriptive when it comes to evaluating customer perception of customer service of

the Reliance trends.

Descriptive research, also known as statistical research, describes data and characteristics

about the population or phenomenon being studied. Descriptive research answers the

questions who, what, where, when and how.

Although the data description is factual, accurate and systematic, the research cannot describe

what caused a situation. Thus, descriptive research cannot be used to create a causal

relationship, where one variable affects another. In other words, descriptive research can be

said to have a low requirement for internal validity.

The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Often the

best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey investigation.

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Qualitative research often has the aim of description and researchers may follow-up with

examinations of why the observations exist and what the implications of the findings are.

RESEARCH SAMPLE

SAMPLING PLAN :

Since it is not possible to study whole universe, it becomes necessary to take sample from

the universe to know about its characteristics.

Sampling Units: Customers of Reliance trends.

Sample Technique: Random Sampling.

Research Instrument: Structured Q uestionnaire.

Contact method: Personal interview

SAMPLE SIZE:

The work is a case of Reliance trends one of the Retail Sector industry together representing

great per cent of the market share of Indian retail sector. The survey was conducted in the city

of Bangalore with two branches of Reliance trends, with 50 customers as respo nde nt .

DATA COLLECTION TOOL

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Data is collected from various customers through personal interaction. Some other information

is collected through secondary data also. Data was collected through a structured

questionnaire, likert technique is used. Likert scale is simply a statement which the

respondent is asked to evaluate according to any kind of subjective or objective criteria,

generally the level of agreement and disagreement is measured.

The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part consists of three questions concerning

the demographic information of the respondent such as the name, age, occupation and gender.

The second part consisting of respondent’s perception about the customer services of

Reliance trends and competitors analysis.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS

The study is only for the Reliance trends co nfined to a particular location and a very

small sample of respondents. Hence the findings cannot be treated as representative of the

entire retail industry.

Respondents may give biased answers for the required data. Some of the respondents Did not like to respond.

Respondents tried to escape some statements by simply answering “neither agree nor

disagree” to most of the statements. This was one of the most important limitation faced, as

it was difficult to analyse and come at a right conclusion.

In our study we have included 50 customers because of time limit.

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Data analysis

1. Gender

Particulars Frequency Valid Percentmale 28 56.0

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female 22 44.0Total 50 100.0

malefemale

Analysis:From the above table and the pie graph it is clearly observed that the number of males entering

into the reliance trends stores are more when compared to that of females. But from the taken

sample of 50 respondents, the number is quite same.

Interpretation:

From the taken sample of 50 respondents the number of males is higher than the number of

females but the number is quite same, so reliance should not neglect on any gender as both are

entering into the stores in almost same numbers.

2. Age group

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percent20-30 34 68.030-40 10 20.0above 40 6 12.0Total 50 100.0

Analysis:From the above figure and the table it is clearly observed that most of the people entering into

the reliance trends store belong to the age group of 20-30 years.

Interpretation:

As it is clear that the people of age group between 20-30 years are visiting the stores mostly. So

reliance trends have to concentrate on attracting more people of this group. All the promotions

should be done in the way to influence the people of this age group to come into stores. Also

people of this age group will follow the fashion trends, and Reliance trends stands itself as

India’s Largest Fashion Destination.

3. Occupation:

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Analysis:

From the above bar graph it is very clear that most of the people who were entering the store are

students and next to students is working professionals, followed by the business people and

House wives.

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percent

student 22 44.0

working professional 17 34.0

Business 6 12.0

House wife 5 10.0

Total 50 100.0

Interpretation:

Reliance was getting its targets customers and it has to concentrate more on doing different

types of promotions for attracting the remaining classes of customers.

4. How frequently do you visit reliance trends store.

Analysis:

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Particular’s Frequency Valid PercentWeekly 4 8.0Monthly 14 28.0during offers 19 38.0whenever need arises 13 26.0Total 50 100.0

From the above graph it is observed that 38% people entering the stores at the time of special

offers , 28% people are coming to reliance trends stores monthly and 26% are coming whenever

they need and just 8% people were coming into the stores on weekly basis.

Interpretation:

Most of the people coming into the stores during special offers and some are coming monthly

and when ever need arises for them. So, Reliance have to concentrate on maintaining the

relationship with the customers in such a way that it should retain its customers

5. Are you happy with the location of reliance trends stores in the city

Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentyes 45 90.0no 5 10.0Total 50 100.0

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Analysis:

From the above figure it was clear that maximum people 90% feel that they were happy with the

location of the stores in the city and remaining 10% were not happy with the location.

Interpretation:

It was clear that maximum of the respondents have told that reliance trends stores were located

at the perfect locations in the city Reliance trends can concentrate on bringing more customers

into the stores as they were located in the right locations in the city.

6. Staff greeted you and offered to help you.

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentstrongly agree 14 28.0agree 33 66.0disagree 3 6.0Total 50 100.0

Analysis: From the above table and figure it is clear that 66% of people agreed that staff greeted

them and offered to help them, 28% have strongly agreed, only 6% were disagree.

Interpretation: From the total of 50 respondents no one has given the response as strongly

disagree and very less have given disagree so, it is very good that no one have negative response

regarding this. So reliance trends can concentrate on training the employees in a better way for

assisting different types of customers, employees must be made to communicate in the language

which was understandable to the customers.

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7. Staff was available in a timely manner.

Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentstrongly agree 11 22.0agree 31 62.0disagree 8 16.0Total 50 100.0

Analysis: More than 60% of the respondents agreed that staff was available to assist them in

timely manner and 22% of respondents have strongly agreed and just 16% of respondents

disagreed.

Interpretation:

From the above data it is clearly understood that very few customers feel that staff was not

available in timely manner and the maximum of the respondents feel that staff was available.

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8. Do the store provides convenient parking for customers.

particulars Frequency Valid Percent

yes 33 66.0

no 17 34.0

Total 50 100.0

Analysis: 66% of the respondents feel that they have convenient parking space and 34% of respondents feel they don’t have convenient parking space.

Interpretation:

Almost all the reliance trends store are having enough parking space but some people are feeling that they don’t have convenient parking. This may be because parking vehicles in the parking space is not properly managed. it the parking space is not available for customers there may be chance that they may get negative impression on entire Reliance trends.

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9. How did you come to know about reliance trends.

newspapers leaflets banners and

hoardingsfriends and relativfes

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Series1

Analysis:

From the above data it was clearly observed that 34% of people came to know about reliance trends through their friends and relatives and 32 % of people through banners and hoardings, through leaflets is 18% and through newspaper advertisement is 16%.

Interpretation:

Reliance trends is getting mouth publicity with out any cost to company, many customers came to know about reliance trends from their friends and relatives. Branners and hoardings also helps

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentnewspapers 8 16.0leaflets 9 18.0banners and hoardings 16 32.0friends and relatives 17 34.0Total 50 100.0

reliance trends to bring customers. We cannot neglect the number of customers coming by seeing the advertisements in news papers and by receiving pamphlets, they both confine a total of 34%. So we can concentrate on doing these activities more effectively

10. Do you like to visit reliance trends store again.

Analysis:

From the above figure it is clear that maximum of the respondents feel that they would like to

visit reliance trends store again.

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percent

yes 44 88.0

no 6 12.0Total 50 100.0

88% of respondents like to visit again and only 12% of respondents didn’t like to visit again.

Interpretation:

From the above analysis it can be observed that almost all the customers entering into the store

like to visit the store again. Reliance have to maintain a better relationship with the customers for

making them to come into reliance trends stores again and again by training the employees for

assisting customers.

11. Would you like to recommend reliance trends to your friends and family?

Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentyes 43 86.0no 7 14.0Total 50 100.0

yes no

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Series1

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Analysis:

86% of respondents said that they would like to recommend reliance trends to their friends and relatives, only 14 % said that they would not like to recommend reliance trends.

Interpretation:

It is very good for reliance trends that 86% of people who are coming into store like to visit the store again and also they would like to recommend reliance trends to others. So reliance trends can concentrate on the remaining people who are not likely to recommend reliance trends to others by assisting them in providing what they want.

12. The offers available in the store are good value for money.

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentstrongly agree 7 14.0agree 35 70.0disagree 6 12.0strongly disagree 2 4.0Total 50 100.0

Analysis:

From the above data table it is clear that 70% of respondents feel that the merchandise offered by reliance trends was good values for money and 14% feel that they strongly agree and only 12% of respondents disagree and 4% strongly disagree.

Interpretation:

84% feel that the offers available in the store are good value for money. So maximum people find the pricing and offers in the reliance trends stores was good.

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13. Where do you usually shop for if not reliance trends

max

mega m

art

brand fa

ctory

life st

yle

pantal

oonsothers

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Series1

Analysis:

From the above data it is observed that 26% prefer shopping in max, 24% prefer to shop in brand

factory, 16% in Mega mart, 14% in pantaloons, 12% in lifestyle and 8% in other types of retail

apparel stores.

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentmax 13 26.0mega mart 8 16.0brandfactory 12 24.0life style 6 12.0pantaloons 7 14.0others 4 8.0Total 50 100.0

Interpretation:

From the above analysis it is very clear that we can consider Max and Brand factory as the close

competitors of Reliance trends, Megamart and Pantaloons are also considered as the competitors.

So, Reliance trends can concentrate on doing promotions better than its competitors for attracting

more customers.

14. How do you rate your experience in Reliance trends with regard toa)Customer service

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Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentexcellent 7 14.0

good 31 62.0average 12 24.0Total 50 100.0

Analysis:

From the total respondents of 50, 62% feel that customer service at reliance trends was good,

24% of respondents feel it is average and 14% of respondents feel that it is excellent.

Interpretation:

From the analysis we can understand that no one customer from respondents feel that customer

service at reliance trends is poor. Maximum of the respondents feel that customer service at

reliance trends is good. Reliance trends can do better customer service for satisfying the

remaining customers who feel it is not good.

b) Easy navigation

Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentexcellent 3 6.0good 30 60.0average 17 34.0Total 50 100.0

Analysis:

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From the data it is clear that 60% of respondents feel that easy navigation in the store is good,

34% feel that it is average and 6% feel it is excellent.

Interpretation:

From the analysis it can be interpreted that 60% of respondents feel that they can move all

around the store to find what they want. No one customer responded that easy navigation in the

store is poor but very less number of customers feel that easy navigation in the store is excellent

so, Reliance trends can arrange the store in such a way that it can allow the customers to movw

around the store in finding what they want.

c) Visual Merchandising

Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentexcellent 2 4.0good 30 60.0average 18 36.0Total 50 100.0

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Analysis: From the data it can be clearly observed that the 60% of respondents feel that visual

merchandising is good and 36% feel it is average and just 4% of respondents feel that it is

excellent.

Interpretation:

From that analysis it can interpreted that 60% of respondents feel that the visual merchandising

in reliance trends is good and it attracts them to come into the store and try the merchandise.

So, for the remaining customers who feel visual merchandising is no so nice in Reliance trends,

it can improve on arranging their merchandise in an attractive way which will bring in more

customers.

d) Billing counter experience

Particular’s Frequency Valid Percentgood 22 44.0average 25 50.0fair 3 6.0Total 50 100.0

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Analysis:

From the above data it can be observed that 50% of respondents feel that their Billing experience

in reliance trends is average. 44% of respondents feel it is good and 6% feel it is fair.

Interpretation:

It can be interpreted that not even half of the respondents feel that their billing experience in

reliance trends is good and 50% of people feel it is average. So, it can be clearly observed that

there was negative impression on the billing. Reliance trends can increase the number of billing

counters in the store and keeping the experienced staff for doing the faster billing and to reduce

the waiting time for customers.

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FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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Summary of Findings

Customers cannot find the T-shirts in sizes large and extra large. Very few sizes T-shirts

available in the sizes large and extra large.

Most of the customers were looking for more well known brands, where Reliance trends

concentrating on their own private lables.

Staff were busy doing the arrangement of merchandise in the opening hours(11am-2pm),

very few staff available to help customers on weekdays.

Customers are not being asked by the staff to fill in different types of promo offer

applications like Try and fly.

A feedback book was kept near the billing counter, but very less customers were writing

in the feedback book.

All the merchandise was not arranged according to their sizes.

Employees were not well trained in assisting the customers.

Some types of works like rebranding the different stalls in the store, electric works

happening in the store in the working hours creating disturbance to the customers.

Many customers feel that extra charge for carry bags have to be winded.

Customers in the kids section feel that the collections for kids have to be increased.

Some customers in the kids section said that the bottom wear for kids have to be more

colourful but the kids bottom wear in the store are plain colours, all are almost similar

models.

Alteration time have to be reduced. Many customers are waiting in the store for

alteration.

Reliance was spending lot of money on promotional activities, but monitoring of

promotional activities was very less.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

All the sizes must be made available in the stores. So Reliance will not lose out some

customers.

More popular brands have to be kept in the store, more customers were asking for that

brands.

Staff have to be made available for assisting the customers in the opening hours of the

store.

Customers must be asked by the staff to fill applications related to different offers in the

stores.

All the customers must be asked to write their feedback in the feedback book which was

kept near the billing section.

All the merchandise in the store must be arranged according to the sizes. So that

customers can find their sizes very easily.

Staff must be well trained in assisting the customers and talking well with the customers.

All types of works which were happening in the stores have to be done before or after the

working hours of the store.

Carry bags can be provided to the customers at free of cost for those who shop for more

than Rs 1000 or above.

Collections in the kids wear section can be increased.

Alteration time can be reduced by hiring additional tailors or by doing the work fastly. So

that customers waiting time for the alteration can be reduced.

Promotional activities or marketing activities have to be monitored properly. So that they

can help Reliance trends to get more customers.

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CONCLUSION

From the above findings the following are the conclusion on customer satisfaction with regards

to Reliance Trends. From the study we conclude that all the customers are not fully satisfied

with not only Reliance Trends but also with the remaining competitors of reliance trends,

customers are finding some faults with every apparel stores.

The customers entering into the store are happy with the offers available in the store that the

offers are good value for their money. But from my observation i can conclude that Relaince

trends was spending lot of money for different types of marketing and promotional activities for

driving more customers into the stores, but Reliance was not concentrating on converting the

people who entered the store into a final customers.

After conducting a thorough survey and research on Reliance Trends it is observed that it has

been perceived as a good brand. It has good customer loyalty and also attracts a large number of

new customers. It also offers its customer a unique shopping experience a few brands can offer.

It also got an advantage of its locations situated in commercial locations. There are a good

number of Reliance Trends stores located across the city which makes it easy for customers to

access the store. Customers seemed to be happy when it came to the layout of the store, the

merchandise, and cleanliness of the store, ambience, etc.

Consumers have high expectations from Reliance Trends regarding pricing; they expect good

collection of clothes at much cheaper price. A lot of awareness programs may help in getting

better footfalls.

The future for Reliance Trends indeed seems to be bright and it should continue to do well as

seems apparent from the response of the customers.

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BIBILOGRAPHY:

www.ril.com

www.wikipedia.com

http://www.ibef.org/industry/retail-india.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/RelianceTrends

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ANNEXURE

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ANNEXURE

I am undertaking a research project on customer satisfaction with regard to your

feedback will be useful for my project. I assure that all the information from you will be kept

confidential and will be used only for my project. Kindly give your feedback.

Name: …………………………………. Occupation: ....................................

Gender: ..................... Age Group: …………

Email: ………………………………….. Mobile: ……………………………….

1. How frequently do you visit reliance trends store.

(a)weekly (b)Monthly (c) During offers (d)Whenever need arises

2. Are you happy with the location of Reliance trends stores in the city .

(a)Yes (b) No

3.Staff greeted you and offered to help you.

(a)Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly disagree (d) Disagree

4. Staff was available in a timely manner

(a)Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly disagree (d) Disagree

5. Do the store provides convenient parking for customers.

(a)Yes (b)No

6.How did you come to know about reliance trends.

(a)Newspaper (b)Leaflets (c)Banners&hoardings (d)friends and relatives

7.Do you like to visit reliance trends store again

(a)yes (b)no

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If no Please specify reason ____________________________

8.Would you like to recommend reliance trends to your friends or family

(a)yes (b)no

If no Please specify reason ____________________________

9.The offers available in the store are good value for money.

(a)Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly disagree (d) Disagree

10.where do you usually shop for if not reliance trends. please mention here

__________________________________________________________________

11.How do you rate your experience in Reliance trends with regard to

1)Customer service

a) Excellent (b)Good (c)Average (d)Fair (e)Poor

2)Easy navigation

a) Excellent (b)Good (c)Average (d)Fair (e)Poor

3)Visual Merchandising

a) Excellent (b)Good (c)Average (d)Fair (e)Poor

4)Billing counter

a) Excellent (b)Good (c)Average (d)Fair (e)Poor

12.Any suggestions or comments on how trends can give you a better shopping experience.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Thank you

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